American Megatrends 1.00 in NEC Ready from 1993 won't go to setup \ VOGONS

American Megatrends 1.00 in NEC Ready from 1993 won't go to setup

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First post, by Yancakes

Posted on 2025-08-10, 23:46

Yancakes Offline

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As pictured - it starts up, I have the option to "Press <F1> Key if you want to run SETUP", but when I press F1 it just sys "Entering Setup - Please Wait..." and hangs there indefinitely. Google doesn't return any older results 🤣, just people having similar problems on newer computers.

I've unplugged all of the excess hardware, it's just the mobo with a keyboard and monitor plugged in now. I've removed and replaced the CMOS battery.

Any ideas?

Reply 1 of 2, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2025-08-11, 00:03

jakethompson1 Offline

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I have read reports elsewhere about Intel-made motherboards using that old-school AMIBIOS (which your NEC appears to be) having trouble with the SETUP program not being able to reset/parse a completely empty CMOS RAM.

IIRC, if you can at least boot from a floppy, some found it as simple as setting the date and time using DOS commands, then rebooting and entering setup. The next level of complexity would be something from the AT era like GSETUP to at least initialize the CMOS with plausible values.

Reply 2 of 2, by Yancakes

Posted on 2025-08-11, 00:33

Yancakes Offline

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2025-08-11, 00:03:

I have read reports elsewhere about Intel-made motherboards using that old-school AMIBIOS (which your NEC appears to be) having trouble with the SETUP program not being able to reset/parse a completely empty CMOS RAM.

IIRC, if you can at least boot from a floppy, some found it as simple as setting the date and time using DOS commands, then rebooting and entering setup. The next level of complexity would be something from the AT era like GSETUP to at least initialize the CMOS with plausible values.

My wife rolled her eyes at me as I cheered "YES! I GOT A DIFFERET ERROR!"

Turns out the ribbon cable I was using on my floppy was bunk - just having the floppy drive as a boot option let me get in to set up, currently at the bios setup screen.

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